Boris has more waffle than Bird's Eye...

[Smithtylater]

Why can't he just answer a question straight?
And also if you have children did he just suggest you tell your employer and stay home? That is not going to go down well!

I adore Chris Whittys subversive nature "we're not Comms experts"...ie. Not our slogan!

Thank god for him and Sir P.

I think he should have announced that the changes would happen from next week to give employers a chance to make arrangements and for the public to ask questions. Doing it as he did was always going to create confusion. He announced it last night but they haven't even finalised it all yet. What a shower they are.

Noticed how their message about a vaccine changed tonight too. Funny how it's now "might not happen, but hopefully we'll have one eventually", Boris said that 18 years on and we don't have one for SARS. Very sudden change of tune from a couple of weeks ago when September kept being bandied about. Hhhmmm

This really is exposing every weakness he has, and there are so, so many of them.

They shouldn’t do live broadcasts. He should stick to pre-recorded.

The aim is clarity. He isn’t naturally good at this.

Didn’t he used to be an editor???

Honestly I’m the last to criticise, it’s an emergency and we don’t have much precedent.

But.... how does he use so much time saying nada? So many words!! And thinking we’re impressed by his French mate you can’t speak clear English

He needs to sharpen up. It is disrespectful to waste everyone’s time. Have the scientists speak if you can’t concisely

Had to stop watching! Was cringing.

I’m glad we have that new labour bloke, he’s a professional speaker so at least some clear points from him.

That’s the issue... structure! Boris speak in clear bullet points, instead he gives us paragraphs and paragraphs. Didn’t we all at school learn “point, explanation, example”?

To be fair to the Tory faithful and the 1922 committee in July 2019 ' getting brexit done' was way more important than any other thing known to man or beast.
They did not foresee a pandemic or any other crisis at all. Boris was their man! He was the new leader with a 'new vision! ' to take them to the sunny uplands etc etc.
It was not meant to be this way! Not at all.
They are stuck with him now ..

Just can’t trust borris, he’s never been truthful and only out for his own political gain from the get go, got in as prime minister by default. Love Chris Whitty though, he always seems to speak calmly and keep to the point.

Yes clear bullet points

Whitty is great at this. Three reasons etc... every time he breaks it down.

Yes, Boris's slogan 'let's get this thing done' for Brexit, that worked.

Unfortunately, he's now landed with this and bluster and soundbites will just not work.

It is disrespectful to waste everyone’s time.
Especially when he wastes everyone time waffling for 5 minutes and still doesn't answer the question. Sometimes its ok to just say yes or no Boris, like the old mumsnet adage No is a complete sentence!

He’s embarrassing. Starmer destroyed him in PM question tome That legal steel pincer brain picked up all the faults in the whole thing earlier today.

Let’s be thankful Peston didn’t come on and ask a question, the pair of them would still be waffling

Oh did he? Re Starmer. I didn’t listen but I always suspected Starmer would expose his waffley weakness.

How do these people have such poor knowledge of the document they put together?! If anyone else turned up at work for a major presentation and made constant major errors they'd get sacked.

Very true lyra, and one could be a fervent supporter of the government pandemic strategy whilst still understanding that this is a problem. The people trying to counter criticisms of the Tories would do better to just admit this bit. It's been very badly and confusingly presented, that's a fact.

Like when he did yesterday's recorded broadcast and continually mentioned the 50 page document. Any other company would have released it alongside the broadcast without a second thought, knowing people would have questions it may answer. Common sense seems severely lacking in our Government

This assumes it wasn't done on purpose. If what you're trying to achieve is confusion, because you're worried you got it wrong initially and you want as muddy a path as possible between your strategy and negative consequences, well, this wouldn't be a bad way to go. Hypothetically.

The difference watching Keir Starmer speak - doesn't take a genius to work out who people are going to have more faith in!

The British electorate lost all credibility when they let Farage and Johnson sweep them over the Brexit cliff which is going to bring a colossal double whammy for the economy in the midterm. Let the Tories stay in power another decade and sort it all out as far as I’m concerned. Oh, and don’t forget the break up of the U.K.

so waffle waffle whack a mole basically

I could just see Whitty internally cringing...

Also....that weird claw pointing thing he does winds me up now!

Yes I liked Starmer and his dissection of The Document he'd only had for about an hour.

'On page 25 ...'

'On page 27 ...'

Johnson didn't have a scooby.

I adore Chris Whittys subversive nature "we're not Comms experts"...ie. Not our slogan!

Too late to try to shrug it off now though, he's been standing up there week after week allowing the govt to claim credibility for this terrible mess.

Boris was never a details man, reliant on bluff and buffoonery. I know people that actually voted for Boris because 'he's just so funny',well this is what you get when you elect an after dinner speaker as PM

It's almost as if you need something more than a slogan and red bus when you run a country.

In fact I’d say Sturgeon is the sort of serious history making politician Johnson wishes/fantasizes he was. The only glimmer of hope for the U.K. is if Starmer’s Labour absolutely surges ahead in the polls by the end of the year. Realistically, no. The U.K. is finished. First Scotland, then N.Ireland, then some years later Wales.

Starmer indicated today on LBC radio that he intends to let the Tories fully carry the can for Brexit. He's not walking into any traps there. He's a long-term strategist and an able and articulate tactician.